Method of and apparatus for operating turbines.



O. S. BRADLEY.

' METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR OPERATING TURBINES.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 25, 1911. 1,01 5,777. Patented Jan. 30, 1912.

2 BHEETSSHBET l.

Q/vcooeo flsalute .Deyrees C'enk 0. S. BRADLEY.

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR OPERATING TURBINES.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 25, 1911.

Patented Jan. 30, 1912.

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spams... else... h s. Application filed my, 1911. m. 029,491. v To all whom it mytbmm. that only, a part o f them are broii ghtiinto use I I Be it known that I, name's. 13mm,

a citizen of the United States, andifresident of the borough and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements'in Meth- Turbines, cation.

e following is a speci to' a method and ap- My invention relates paratus for operating turbines for convert-'- ing heat into mechanical power.

he invention forming the subject of my present application is especially adapted to.

those situations where condenser water vis scarce and it is further intended to replace with economy the present so-called steam engines which of necessity must exhaust the steam into the atmosphere.-

All condensing steam engines require a relatively large amount of'water to operate the condenser, for the reason that they utiline in the condensing operation only the' specific heat of the water through'a range of say for example 3590f temperature centigrade, or grani'scaloi'ijes or therms per gram of water used. 'According to my invention thespecifie lieat'ofthe water between ordinary temperature and the boiling point is used and in addition thereto the 537 therms of latent heat, making in all say 57 2 therms per gram of water evaporated.

In addition to the economical use ofthe condenser "water my invention provides a much more efficient operation within the turbine itself, as will appear from a considera-- tion of some of the characteristics of this drop with any given difference in'pressuresbeing greater at low pressure), thereby increasing the thermodynamic efliciency with difierene'es of'pressure; thirdly as mechanivr calconstruction calls for passages 'solarge of -M anhattan, city, county,

. pressure steam engine, that is to, say, those issuin from the-nozzles should not be re- -tard and'thus'lo'se energy by issuing into adense medium. s; e

.Among otheradvantages-of my invention is the low cost of mechanical construction for a given amount of power developed-7'.

Furthermorethe boiler or heater isat ver low-pressure and therefore requires a sma 1 amount ,of-material and the danger of burstingis-minimized.-

Theimproved method consists, generally speaking, inqusingin a ,boiler a substance which boils under atmospheric ressure at such a temperature above the boiling point ofwater that it may be expanded a maxi- .ing the turbine b keeping a suriace condenser at the .boilmg point of water under atmospheric ressu're'. 1 For example, if the Working flui were admitted to the interior of the tubes of a surface condenser surrounded with water open'to the atmosphere, .it is evident that the tubes would-be 'kept at the temperature of boiling water, and if the turbine is operated by are r which has been boiled at 260 C. while condenser is at 120 0. (allowing for 20 drop throu h operating difierence' of temperature 'will be 140 C. This temperature a thermodynamic efiicieney of-alittle more than 26%, and a large" art-of this may-be realized in practice. 'le vapor of these desirable qualities,- I prefer also that the substance utilized as a working fluid shall, when in thestate of vaporor gas, have a relatively high density inlorder that its issuing velocity may be as low as possible and thus the turbincfhave as low a mum amount and condensed after-operat choosing a indicates velocity as it is possible to obtain. An example of such a substance is found in the case of monochlormtiphthalene, the density of which is 5.5 referred to air, or nine times that. of steam, which will give an issuing velocity of, about 1383 feet per second or about i of that of steam. This substance having a boiling .point of about 260 C. at

. ordinary pressure and a little under 120- C.

85 the walls of the condenser tubes), then 1'. e

i sure is 118.6 C.

at 10 mm. pressure offers atemperature Since thboilingxoint at Ionian-pres w e the water atatmosphericpressure bolls at 100 0., it'is apparf ;ent .that a good working difference of tem-Q perature is maintained in the condenser.

Whilel have'set forth the abovethermodynamic conditions as the .mostsimple case and. involving-the most simpleco truction;

I necessary, operate, .the boiler abe I'may, where high efficiency is'.

mospheric pressure and thus increase the, thermodynamic eificienc beyond 26%. .It' will also-be apparent that. the steam co ing fromfthe-condenser may be utilized to operate a low pressure steam turbine, simi .larly to the present practice of adding a;

' lowv pressure turbine'toahigh pressure re .ciyirocating engineJ- n place of the monochlor-naphthalene,

some other'substance'having similar characteristics may be employed. such as for Q example nitro-benzoleor-tetra .brornid of i tin.--' Those skilled in this art will' under-f stand that the details of the apparatus will.

vary according to the substance utilized and] the particular requirements attending the fuse of which the system is to he put,but for 19116 P p ses of illustration I -shall refer to a gs and describe the same with refan apparatus shown in the accompanying erence to the use ofmonochlor-naphthalene.

In said drawings, Figure lis a diagramm'atic view of a system embodying the principles of my invention, and Fig. 2 represents the boiling-point-pressure curves of ywater and monochlor-naphthalene .in de-' 'grees centigradc and millimeters of mar-- -Beferring to 1, 10 indicates the boiler from which leads a pipe 11' controlled by 1 hand valve 1-2 for conducting the ,vapor'ot monochlor-naphthalene generated in boiler 10 into an expanding nozzle 13 which directs 5o the-vapor into turbine 14. From turbine 14, thespent vapor is drawn through exhaust pipe 15 into the, condeusertubes 16 which are surrounded by a body of water 17 in container 18 open to the atmosphere or to a low pressure turbineby pipe 19- A. safety valve 20 is provided in the vapor pipelianddischargcs excessvapor from pipe 11 through discharge pipe 21 directly into the .condenser tubes 16 instead o'f into the atmos-.

phcre, so -as to avoid loss of operating fluid -from the system.

From the condenser tubes 16, the con- I de nsed operating fluid is delivered through a discharge pipe 22 into a reservoir from condenser tubes 27 an which it is pumped back through return pipes'24 and 25 by pump 26 to the boiler 10. qA second or auxlliar condenseryhavihg an open water re.-

ceptacle 28,- receives the uncondensed ex -j-.=

haust vapor from the first mentioned .01

prlmary condenser, pumped out 'by the pump 29,'which-thus'maintains the reduced p Its water receptacle-is supplied with water by led by hand valve or pressure in the primary condenser.

sup .ly pipe 30. contro the ikej 31,-and discharges the overflow into the water recepta or container 18 of the primary 'conderi's I From the secondary -livered from time to time. to the-above mentlonefdreservoir 23, through the return pi e 32 by opening-the hand valve 33. An indicatortube' .34 is preferably provided in the secondary condenser to disclose the'quantity of condensed fluid contained. Condenser condenser tubes, the condensed fluid is dedischarge air which may have leaked into ture with consequent increased temperature. range, andthermodynamic elhcier'iey. It. will be observed,however,. with reference to the boiling pointpressure curves hereinafter .100

referred to, that the elevation of the boiling temperature fora given increase in pressure is relatively small at the higher pressures.

Thepressure in the condenseryon the other 7 hand isfmaintained as low as practicable, as the depression of the condensation temperature becomes relatively. greater I and greater as the pressure. becomes lower. Another point of view would be that the lower end of the curve is the place where the great- '1'1o Referring now to Fig. 2 of the drawings,

est gain in efiiciency is offered.

A indicates the boiling-point-pressure curve for water, and B indicates the boiling-pointpressure curve for monochlor naphthalene. In the diagranu'the abscissa: indicate pressure in millimeters of' mercury, andthe ordinates indicate temperature in degrees centigrade. Absolutetemperature is shown at the left. of the a diagram. The monochlornaphthalene being a very much heavier vapor than the steam, I am able to operate 1t at a very much lower pressure and still have a considerable mass of material in thecondenser; that is, there will be more material in the condenser with the m0nochlor-naph thalene at ten millimeters pressure than with water at fifty' millimeters pressure. Fur-- thermore, the water vapor cannot be carpressures curve B has a much greater temperature range than curve A andwhereas bet-ween the'normalpressure of 760 mm. and 50 mm. the boiling point of water has a temperature range of 62, the working-tempera ture range of monochlor-napht-halene 1s in the nei hborhood' of 155; consequently the thermo ynamifc efliciency between these pressures isvery i'much greater 1n the case of monochlor-naphthalene than in the case of water. With regard to the condensation of the monochlor-naphthalene by-transfer perature to permit the latent heat, given 06' of its heat to water at normal atmospheric pressure, 'it will be seen from the relative positions of the two curves that the pressure of the monochlor-naphthalene maybe maintained as low as say 10 mm. and leave a satisfactory operating difference of temfrom the vapor in changing to liquid, to be taken'up by the water in the form of latent heat'of evaporation. Again the temperature range of the monochlor-naphthalene,

under the conditions of operation, will be seen to be about"155, ortaking the initial and final temperatures in'degrees absolute. the thermodynamic. efliciency equals say 'Iclaim:

1. The method of operating power turbines, which comprises boiling a substance having a vapor heavier than steam and which at condenser pressures lower than practical with steam has a boiling point higher than water at atmospheric pressure,

I driving the turbine with the'vapor thus produced, and condensing the vapor by the' evaporation of a condenser fluid at atmospheric pressure.

- -2. The method of operating power turbines, which comprises boiling a substance having a vapor heavier than steam and which at condenser pressures lower than practical with" steam has a boiling point higher than water at atmospheric pressure,

driving the turbines with thevapor thus produced, and condensing the vapor by absorbing heat therefrom as latent heat of water at atmospheric pressure.

3.'The method of operating power tur- 6 -bines,- which comprises boiling a substance 'having a vapor heavier than steam and which at condenser pressures lower than practical with steam has,a boiling point higher than. waterat atmospheric pressure,

driving the turbine with the vapor thus produced, and condensing the vapor by absorbing heat therefrom as latent heat of .water at atmospheric pressure, while maintaining a material margin of. temperature between the working vapor and the boiling water in the condenser.

4. The method of operating power turbines, which comprises ,vaporizingmonochlornaphthalene, drivingthe turbine there- ,with, and condensing thespnt vapor, in

cyclic manner. 5. The method of operating power turbines which comprises driving the turbine with a working, fluid 0f suitable boiling point andcondensing the fluid with boiling water. 6. The method ,of operating ower 'tu'rbines which comprises driving tie turbines point and condensing the fluid with boiling water at about 100 C. 7 A povver turbine system comprising in combination a boiler for. fluid of high with-a working fluid of suitable boiling boiling point relative to steam, a turbine,

' a, co ndensf"er for the spent fluid from said ;turl nne;,,and a safety valve between said boiler and said turbine discharging into said condenser for avoiding loss of operating 8. A power turbine system comprising in combination a boiler for fluid of high boiling point relative to steam, a turbine operated thereby, a primary condenser in which the working fluid is; condensed at vacuum pres- 1 sure, a secondary condenser and an air pump for pumping uncondensed vapor from the primary .condcnser into the secondary condenser at atmospheric pressure, whereby a total condensation is assured and loss .ofv 114 working fluid avoided.

CHARLES s. BRADLEY.

W'itnesses:

ALONZO B. BRADLEY, OCTAVIUS KNIGHT. 

